


‘Taboo’

by Zoya113



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: Domestic, F/M, Fluff, taboo - periods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-26 21:17:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21380725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoya113/pseuds/Zoya113
Summary: Paul tries very awkwardly to provide Emma comfort but social taboo is one hell of a bitch
Relationships: Paul Matthews/ Emma Perkins
Comments: 3
Kudos: 45





	‘Taboo’

“Hey hun, welcome home!” Paul’s smile was briefly wiped off his face when he saw the growl on Emma’s face. 

“Why do you have to talk so loudly? Shut up!” Her arms were crossed and her apron was still on, tied around her waist. 

She marched directly to the bathroom and it took Paul a second to process what was happening. 

“Bad day?” He asked through the door, but he got no response and soon the shower began to run. 

He swept up his shattered feelings and started on dinner, but he noticed she was taking a much longer shower than usual. 

He slid the tray into the oven and took to standing outside the bathroom door.   
His breathing was distressed.   
She had marched straight to the shower but hadn’t brought clean clothes with her or explained what was going on, and she had been in there for almost an hour now. 

He knocked to remind her of the time but didn’t say a word. 

Emma didn’t listen, and the tap didn’t stop running for another ten minutes. 

“Dinner’s ready!” He called, going as far as to set the table and prepare each plate before even calling her.   
She wanted her alone time today. 

“Not hungry!” She shouted back. 

Paul rubbed his forehead, looking at the food he had prepared.   
Today, Emma worked the morning shift, went to classes and then worked the closing shift. Today was not the sort of day she wouldn’t be hungry. 

“What’s happening, Emma?” He stood in the bedroom doorway, looking at his girl hidden under their blanket. 

Her face was tucked away from view and she was wearing her dressing gown under the blankets.   
She ignored him at first, but figured he wouldn’t leave.   
“Nothing. I’m just in bed. Can’t I go to sleep?” She pleaded. Her face was red and she wouldn’t make eye contact with him. 

“I made dinner, can you get up and eat some? I know it’s hard to find a break on these days but you’ll feel better with some energy. D’you want me to bring it here?” He asked quietly, tilting his head.

“I don’t want any food. I’m really tired. I’ll get food later if I’m hungry but I’m not.” She pulled her blanket over her eyes. 

“Oh no,” he frowned, flicking off the light switch. “Are you feeling sick?”

“I’m not sick, I’m just mad.”

“Wanna talk about it?” 

“No. I don’t. I just wanna sleep.” Her voice broke and she dug deeper into her sheets, her legs churning beneath the blankets. “I had such a bad day today Paul. The worst. I’m so fucking mad. I just want to go to sleep so that I don’t have to feel like this.”

“Hun,” he sat down besides her, stroking her back. “What’s up? Are you sure you don’t wanna talk?” 

“I had a stupid- urgh!” She couldn’t finish before a growl came out. The thought itself was too excruciating. “I’m just pissed no one told me! No one told me and I was like that the whole day!”

“What didn’t they tell you?” He drew her hair out of her face but the second the lights hit her eyes she drove further into the pillow. 

“It’s stupid. I just want to forget it ever happened okay? I’ve had enough. I just wanna wake up and have this day over with.” She placed one hand on her stomach, playing with the fabric of her pyjama shirt.

He went to rub her back when he noticed how hot her skin was. “I’m getting the vibes that you’re pretty sensitive right now. How about we put dinner in the fridge for tomorrow and order in? Something shitty and greasy, huh?” 

Emma nodded, causing a whimper to push its way through her teeth. 

“We can put on your favourite movie and I’ll get that last bit of ice cream out of the fridge too?” 

Emma’s face flushed bright red. Her eyes glanced up at Paul’s face but didn’t look into his. “You...?”

“Yeah, figured it out, babe. It’s not-! Don’t get embarrassed. I’m fine with it,” Paul reached for her hands, his fingers touching her stomach ever so lightly in the process. “You’re feeling really hot. Maybe you should ditch the robe.” 

“Yeah,” she groaned. 

Paul slipped his arms around her limp body to sit her up but she collapsed her head onto his shoulder. 

“My head’s ringing. I feel like sooo shit...” she mumbled as Paul helped her undress. “Everything hurts and I’m a fucking idiot.”

She moved entirely with his command, her head was barely on her neck and it lulled down the second it left his shoulder. “What’re you saying that for?” 

“This is just the worst thing that’s ever happened to me, Paul. Fuck,” she doubled over as Paul stepped away to hang up her gown. 

“Hey, don’t be so down. You can’t’ve messed up that badly, hun.”

“Well you tell me. I was the biggest, stupid idiot. I bled through my uniform and no one told me. And I walked around half my day like that.” 

“Uh,” Paul’s hands curled up and he fiddled with his thumbs. 

“And I thought it’d be like that dumb, stupid ‘girl code’ bullshit Zoey’s always on about but she said fuck all! She let me make an idiot of myself. I went to my classes like that and oooh!” Her voice dried up into a whine. “I went to class like that I didn’t even notice until the end of the day where I suppose Nora put me out of my misery as we were closing!” 

“Um, babe!” Paul was starting to panic ever so slightly. Clearly not a problem he had ever had to deal with before, and he wasn’t sure what to say. 

“I feel gross. I feel just disgusting. I want to have another shower.” She pulled herself back under the blankets. 

“You aren’t disgusting for that, I mean, I don’t know what I’m supposed to say here actually. But it’s not your fault, you aren’t like, um...!” He tossed about the blankets for a moment to pretend he was being productive. 

“Well the fact you stopped holding me the second I said it!” She snapped. “Can you even imagine how many people saw?”

“I mean was it really that bad?” He asked, rushing to hold her again. “I don’t think anyone would’ve cared.”

“I didn’t even look. I just came home and I got changed and I still feel like there’s blood all over me. This feels fucking disgusting.” She rolled onto her side but continued to roll right back onto her stomach. 

“Do you want to take another shower?” 

“I got out because I couldn’t stand anymore. The hot water was making my head go fucking nuts and I was dizzy and I couldn’t stand up anymore. My legs hurt. I just want sleep to come,” she tucked her hands under her. “Do you know how lucky you guys are?”

“No yeah. I know I’m lucky. It’s crazy that the concept that you people just like, uh,” his face was bright red. He shook his head, shrugging and trying to kill off the awkward vibe he was starting to give. “Just bleed out and all your bones hurt and you get fevers and headaches and that’s just normal, run of the mill. Respect. Lots of respect. I know you’re thinking that I think it’s weird and gross but I just don’t know what to say!” 

Emma managed to laugh, but it was shortly followed by a groan. “It’s okay. We don’t have to talk about it. It’s gross. ‘Taboo.’” 

Paul bit down on his thumb, pacing to the end of the bed and back. “No. We can talk about it. You look like you’ve had a bad day and I don’t want to make it worse. Let’s break that social barrier, huh?” He smiled awkwardly, glad her head was too far into her pillows to see. “Tell me everything Emma.”

Emma pulled herself up with her arms, twisting onto her side and propping up pillows under her back. “Uh. That’s the whole story. I bled through my uniform, man.” Her dry voice cracked and she coughed to clear her throat but instantly regretted it. She held her hands to her forehead to try and stop the aching. “No one told me. I don’t know how obvious it was because I was too scared to check it out. Then I showered for an hour and a half and now we’re here.”

“Uh, so,” Paul sat down on his side of the bed. “I know that you don’t like, obviously, the fact that you messed up your uniform but it’s not like anyone was making fun of you for it!”

Emma pressed her thumbs into her eyeballs. “Well I know that. It’s not like anyone’s bullying me for it but that’s half a dozen people I run into daily who know I’m on my period. It’s unnecessary.” 

Paul shifted Emma very carefully into his lap, resting his hands on her stomach. “The people you don’t know probably already forgot about it and the people you do know don’t care. If you saw someone who uh-“

“You can say ‘bled through’ Paul. You aren’t helping this taboo thing if you can’t say it,” Emma critiqued. “If I saw someone who bled through I’d what?” She slipped down until the back of her head was resting against his chest and she rolled her ankles in circles to distract her brain from the pain. 

“Would you make fun of them? Or care if they were on their period?” He was careful to control his tone to hide the nervousness in his voice but Emma picked up on it, revealing that fact with a small chuckle. 

“I wouldn’t. But other people probably think it’s gross! It’s just something I don’t wanna think about,” she admitted. “I’ve never seen it happen to anyone else before.” 

Paul kissed her forehead, pressing into her lower stomach just below the elastic of her pyjama pants with the tips of his fingers to apply pressure. “Well you don’t have to think about it then. Conversation over. You can tell me next time. But you aren’t disgusting for that happening, you know?”

Emma stretched out her legs and wrapped her fingers around Paul’s arms with a relieved sigh. She leant into the way Paul pressed at her stomach.  
“Well if the taboo is out of the way, my uterus is destroying itself and it hurts like a fucking bitch, so please, keep doing what you’re doing.”


End file.
